Saturday, January 29, 2011

One picture will say in a thousand words what a whole book fails to do. This picture of ACN chieftain, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Ovation Publisher, Chief Dele Momodu (Bob Dee), was taken in exile during the glory days of NADECO. The two men were comrades and brothers in arms (as the picture roundly depicts) fighting for Nigeria’s liberation from the shackles of military dictatorship.

Fast forward to 2011 and it appears their interests and beliefs might have drastically changed. Chief Momodu is the presidential candidate of National Conscience Party and Asiwaju Tinubu has transmuted from ex-governor to ACN ‘kingmaker’.

Again, although Tinubu has presumably always maintained a politically progressive front, it is queer that Momodu who recently changed camps from Labour Party to pitch with Conscience Party, never so much as strayed the way of ACN. A Yoruba adage says ‘Twenty children cannot all remain playmates for twenty years’. Yet, it would be interesting to know how and where these two lost their chumminess or passion for similar ideals.